Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Becoming A Family of 4 - A Birth Story (FINALLY!)

So Peanut is 4 months old and I'm just getting around to putting the final touches on this...oops.

First and foremost I would like to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who we drove crazy because we didn't open the envelope and find out the gender of our peanut before birth. I know some of you were on the edge of your seats with anticipation. ;)

Let's first take a look at the week before Peanut came. For some reason I just felt the need to get everything done that I had been procrastinating about. SweetPea still hadn't had her three year old check up, the dog needed to go to the groomers, and I needed to go to the dentist. So first thing Monday morning, I made all of these appointments and we went to a local bounce house, too. Tuesday would have been the start of my weekly OB visits - 37 weeks, 4 days, but around one early Tuesday morning SweetPea started throwing up so I had to cancel my appointment to stay home with her and they just decided to reschedule for the next week.

So needless to say we didn't get to do anything on Tuesday, although I did get the dog to the groomers. Wednesday SweetPea had her 3 year old check up. She was 3'1' and weighed 32 lbs. I talked to the doctor about her 12 hour stomach bug and he said that she can start taking probiotics to help get her back on track. So after her check up, we headed to Wal-Mart and made a quick shopping trip. I had noticed walking around the store, that I had increased cervical mucous and even made mention of it to my online mommy friends. I went home and made a bigger shopping list, since Kroger changed their sales date to Thursday, I decided I would go then.

But I woke up at 1:30 a.m. Thursday morning from a dream that I peed the bed. And I actually was wet when I woke up. My first thought was, "Well that's embarrassing, I'm not telling [my Hubby]". I had fallen asleep on the couch, so I had to walk up the stairs to get a change of clothes. As I got to the top I felt water come trickle down my leg. Hubby was asleep in the bed after going to bed at 8:30 because he had stayed up with SweetPea during her stomach bug and then did a turn around at work. So when I said, "[Hubby], I think my water broke" he said "Are you serious?" But although I was serious, I wasn't sure. It wasn't like in the movies and the doctor broke my water at 9cm with SweetPea, so I didn't really have any experience with it. We couldn't figure out if it was cervical mucous or if my water had indeed broke, even though I had a gut feeling that it did and I didn't want another water breaking oops like I did with SweetPea. So we decided that since I wasn't experiencing any contractions that we would go to sleep and then see how I felt. Hubby's alarm went off at 4:30 for work, I had to go to the restroom (like I do every morning) and as soon as I rolled out of bed, I knew that yes my water had indeed broke and it was baby time.

So we started getting ready to leave, I even did a load of laundry and the dishes so we wouldn't have to worry about them when we got home. Hubby was freaking out a little. I mean after all, we thought we had two more weeks! But for some reason I was calm and just ready to do this. We dropped SweetPea off at my in-laws and stopped for a quick bite to eat before heading into L&D. They decided to check me into triage because they were so busy even though the litmus paper said my water had broken. Two woman who came in behind me were rushed in because one was crowning and the other came in carrying her baby. I still wasn't experiencing any contractions so this was just all humorous to me. I called my mom sometime during this and she started crying because she was VERY sick and wouldn't be able to come. My sister didn't come either because she started getting sick on the way to the hospital. I did find out that I would have to indeed have to have pitocin, so my birth plan was out the door as soon as I walked in. I was 1 cm, 50% effaced, and -2 station. I felt crushed. But this was my own fault really because if I had talked to my doctor's sooner about my plan, then I would have found out their procedures and could have found another doctor that would have let me labor my way. Or maybe I should have just straight refused. Is that an option?

I wish I took one last belly pic. :C

Once they got me back into a room, they started me on pitocin. This was about 7:30 a.m. Once my contractions hit, they were more painful than I ever remember them being with SweetPea. I think it was because my water was already broken. My contractions were all over the place again, so they gave me this button to push to let them know I was having them. I should have ignored the button and focused on my labor. I caved in and asked for an epidural at 4cm. 4! I felt like such a wimp. This was about 4:30 p.m. There had been some miscommunication between the front desk and our nurse, so they told her I didn't want an epidural and apparently had thrown the doctor's orders out for one. So we had to wait for it. That was excruciatingly annoying.
That nurse was just annoying and it SUCKS that she got paid for not listening to her patient. My mother-in-law was very helpful during this time and was encouraging me to try and not get an epidural beforehand because she knew that was birth plan.

After the epidural kicked in, I felt great and was able to sleep, but awoke to more contractions. Apparently that same nurse didn't put in a pump before she got off at 7, so at around 8 p.m. I started feeling everything, they checked me and I was dialated to 8 1/2 cm, 100% effaced, and 0 station. Everyone was glad I got the epidural because they think it helped calm my body down so I could dialate. I did end up getting a second dose of the epidural, but it didn't start to kick in until right before I started pushing. The nurse was massaging my uterus to help get the baby into station and it felt amazing. But once baby got into station, after 5 pushes he was out. I kept pushing even when the doctor said I could stop because I felt like I could just keep going. At this point my epidural had kicked in (I was so numb, my leg feel and hit like a rock on the bed) and I couldn't really feel when to push plus I was getting impatient and just wanted him out! The first thing I heard was my Hubby say "it's a boy!", then the doctor confirmed, and then they laid him on me and I grabbed him, he was indeed a boy!
The tears in Hubby's eyes were amazing and made all that hard work worth it. Then the next thing Hubby said was okay we're done! Yeah...I'm not so sure and hello we just had a baby. Not knowing what we were having, I never thought of this as my last pregnancy, so who knows where life will take us.

Look how cheesy! Vernix FTW! :D

He nursed for 40 minutes for his first feeding. He was a hungry little booger. He was born weighing 7lbs, 3ounces (the same as my daughter) and 19 inches long (I put 1/2 in the picture above but I had a mommy brain moment). A higher power was looking out for me because I already ended up with 2nd degree lacerations, if I had went to full term and he would have most likely weighed more than 9 lbs, who knows how things would have went.

Breastfeeding went great right from the start. He does have a little lip tie, but I just push his lip up and he is in the right position. I even taught the lactation consultant that! He has a very STRONG latch, so that's why I'm able to do this. When we went to watch the discharge video, I was nursing him in the room with everyone and the lactation consultant said, "I would ask how you're doing with feedings, but I can see you got this down."

The first night in the hospital was GREAT! I felt like jumping around. I let Hubby go home and everything. I had trouble waking little man to eat and he would fall asleep nursing. The second night was ROUGH. Peanut was up most the night. I called Hubby and asked him to come back EARLY the next day. He didn't lose any weight when discharged though, so that made it worth it. I was VERY annoyed that the lady who gave him his first bath scrubbed him so hard (trying to get all the vernix off) that she scrubbed raw spots on him. I wasn't there for this, so I got annoyed with Hubby. I wasn't impressed with my hospital stay. They penny pinch you on everything and I don't remember them doing that the first time. They also didn't handle my paper work correctly, but that's a post for another day. If I were to have another baby, I'm having a home birth with a mid-wife. I did heal okay, though it took longer this time than it did with my first. But back to normal now.

The first time SweetPea met him was adorable. You can see a video of that HERE.

-------------------------------------------------------

And now here Peanut is in all his 4 month glory! SweetPea wanted to be a part of this month's picture. :)

His stats at his 4 month check-up on 7/7/14 were 14.8 lbs, 24 1/4 inches long, and head 41 cm. He started solids which I'll talk about later. And still breastfeeding like a champ!

Congrats on the newest addition to the family! It looks like big sister is really proud of little brother. Let's hope she feels this way in a few years. Sometimes birthing doesn't go as expected. All three of mine were different. 1st birth: vaginal delivery, 2nd birth: C-section, & 3rd birth, VBAC (induced) all-natural...biggest baby. What was I thinking, right? lol I was blessed to have relatively short deliveries (less than 8-hrs) with all of my children. Have a fototastic week! #WW

Mommy to my preschool daughter &toddler son.
I am a former Nanny and now a Stay-At-Home Mom living in Georgia, who thought I knew everything about raising children until I had my own. Learning how to take care of my OWN family while trying to live frugally green on one income. I like to share my thoughts on products, giveaways, and my parenting adventures.